


All Of The Lights Will Lead (Into The Night With Me)

by colorfulmagic



Category: The Avengers - Ambiguous Fandom
Genre: Brief use of the f slur, Clint is a lovable asshole, M/M, Making Out, Sharing a Bed, Steve has terrible taste in music, Steve making questionable choices in furniture, but what else is new, not from the main characters, road trip fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-27
Updated: 2020-04-27
Packaged: 2021-03-01 18:27:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,121
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23871601
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/colorfulmagic/pseuds/colorfulmagic
Summary: When Steve had informed Tony that he was going on a road trip to “find himself”, whatever the hell that meant, it didn’t take much thought on Tony’s end for him to decide that he should come too— okay, maybe some pointed glances from Pepper, met with confused stares from him, and a hastily whispered aside where she explained to him that Steve was lonely Tony, and he had the vacation days anyway, had perhaps played a part.All of which lead to Tony, driving a SHIELD borrowed vehicle because Steve refused to borrow any of his, in the middle of bumfuck America, listening to Steve do a scarily accurate rendition of Call Me Maybe for the fourth time that day. Fun.Or, the road trip fic that no one asked for.
Relationships: Steve Rogers/Tony Stark
Comments: 1
Kudos: 58





	All Of The Lights Will Lead (Into The Night With Me)

**Author's Note:**

> I borrowed some things from the 616 verse in this, mainly that Steve and Tony are around the same age and that they’re pretty good friends since the beginning. 
> 
> Enjoy :D

“Steve. Steve you have got to be kidding me.”

“Nope! You said no more forties songs, so this is me, not playing any more forties songs. Honestly I’m glad you made this rule, it's really making me expand my horizons!”

“When I said maybe we could listen to something besides war era jazz, I did NOT mean listening to Carly Rae Jepson for twenty minutes straight!”

“Well geez, you should really be more specific about these things. How could I have known you don’t like her?” Steve grinned at Tony unrepentantly.

“Perhaps,” Tony said between gritted teeth “because I have been TELLING you that for twenty minutes straight.”

“Really? I feel like I would remember that,” Steve said unconcernedly. 

Tony resisted the urge to bang his head onto the horn repeatedly. When Steve had informed Tony that he was going on a road trip to “find himself”, whatever the hell that meant, it didn’t take much thought on Tony’s end for him to decide that he should come too— okay, maybe some pointed glances from Pepper, met with confused stares from him, and a hastily whispered aside where she explained to him that Steve was lonely Tony, and he had the vacation days anyway, had perhaps played a part.

All of which lead to Tony, driving a SHIELD borrowed vehicle because Steve refused to borrow any of his, in the middle of bumfuck America, listening to Steve do a scarily accurate rendition of Call Me Maybe for the fourth time that day. Fun.

“Aww, it’s okay Tony. Here, look, I’ll put some Ariana Grande on if it’ll make you feel better,” and he reached for Tony’s Starkphone, and Tony yelped and batted his hand away from it without taking his eyes off the road. 

“I swear to god, if you mess up my Spotify algorithm by putting your girly music on there, I’m gonna leave this car right now.”

“Fine, jeez.” Steve slyly looked sideways at Tony, and Tony could feel the trap coming but he couldn’t stop it. “Say,” Steve asked innocently, “you wouldn’t happen to have any other reason you don’t want me on your phone would you? Clint explained to me all about nudes, and I just want to let you know I don’t judge.” 

Tony shot a dirty look at him and spotted in relief the meter showing the almost empty gas tank. Finally a moment away from Steve's atrocious music, and if he played his cards right he could probably get away with breaking the radio “on accident”. 

They drove to the gas station in comfortable silence, and Steve wandered off to the store while Tony filled the tank. Tony was just contemplating the exact pressure he would need to be able to rip the radio out of the dashboard— an actual physical radio because SHIELD’s cars were crap from the prehistoric era— when Steve came not quite running out of the store. With a veritable mountain of snack items in his hand.

“Tony, look how much stuff I got!”

“I… can see that,” Tony said slowly. “Um. Is there any reason why you decided you needed half the store?”

“Well, there were so many options to pick from, and most of this stuff I’ve never tried before so I just decided to get one of each.” Steve was looking at his purchases with the air of a man who was very pleased with his spoils indeed. 

“I see,” said Tony, who did not see. “Is that a… flashlight?”

“A lantern,” Steve corrected. “In case it gets dark.” Steve was now taking out each item and reading the information on the back before placing it lovingly in the back seat of the car. It was a very lengthy process. 

Tony took the nozzle out of the car and placed it back on the machine. “Hey Tony, do you want me to go back and get you anything?”

“You know, weirdly enough, I think I’ll be good sharing whatever you got.”

“Alright, whatever you want,” Steve said cheerfully. “Hey, have you ever tried these Donettes? I’ve never heard of them.”

“Steve. It’s gas station food. It’s probably going to taste like day old twinkies.”

But Steve was carefully opening the package and taking a cautious bite. It seemed to have passed some sort of test because he made a small pleased expression and sat in his seat to dig in. 

Despite all his bluster, Tony was secretly pleased to see Steve so relaxed. The past few weeks Steve had been growing more inward and withdrawn, and Tony would have done a lot worse than listen to Carly Rae Jepson and eat Donettes to see his friend smile again. 

He accepted Steve’s offer and took a careful bite. Hm. 

“It’s not terrible,” Tony admitted, and hid his smile at Steve’s fist pump. 

They drove for a few more hours— thankfully with Steve giving in and allowing Tony to play some AC/DC— until they decided it was time to pack down for the night. They chose a hotel and Steve wandered off to examine the art hanging on the walls while Tony paid. 

“Two beds or one?” the lady at the counter asked, and Tony squinted.

“Uh, two?” He answered. Obviously.

“Hey I don’t judge,” she replied, her fingers clacking away. “So you’re friend, he single?”

Tony stared indignantly. Steve might have been Captain America, but he was Tony Stark. No accounting for taste he supposed. “Actually, no,” he replied sullenly. “He’s in a very happy relationship. With a yoga instructor,” he added, because that ought to put her in her place. 

He eyed her disappointment with some pleasure, and snatched the keys from her and went to their room without waiting for Steve. A minute later he heard a quiet knock on his door and opened it to find Steve staring at his with some befuddlement. 

“Hey, Tony, is there any reason why that receptionist just asked how I feel about the downward dog?”

“Don’t worry about it Cap. It’s a twenty-first century thing,” Tony assured him. 

Steve seemed to accept this, and they moved around each other with quiet ease getting ready for the night. They both settled into their beds, but Tony stared at the ceiling for a while, his brain refusing to let him sleep. There was a patch on the ceiling that was a slightly different shade of beige from the rest of the beiges. He chanced a glance at the clock next to him and inwardly groaned. 

“Hey Tony?”

Shit, Steve was awake too? “Yeah,” he whispered back. Steve’s head poked out from the side of the bed, looking mournfully at Tony. 

“Do you think I could sleep with you?” Um. What. Trying to come up with a response to this, and largely failing, Tony almost missed what Steve said next. 

“It’s just, I always used to sleep next to someone, first it was Bucky when we couldn’t afford another bed, and then, we’ll there wasn’t exactly a lot of room in war tents, and I’m just not used to— you know what, never mind, it was a dumb idea,” Steve was mumbling, his cheeks flushed, and—

“Hey, no, it’s fine. Sure, you can sleep here,” Tony patted the sheets next to him. 

Smiling a relieved grin, Steve slipped out of his own bed and crawled into Tony’s. Tony's limbs were stiff and he wasn’t sure what to do with his arms, but Steve seemed impervious to his awkwardness and cuddled up close to Tony. He seemed to fall asleep right away, and after a while Tony could admit that he was pretty tired too. Finally, for the first time in a while, Tony dropped off quickly to sleep, and didn’t dream at all. 

They got breakfast the next morning at the hotel, and Steve seemed to be in a better mood than usual. He was whistling as he shoveled sausage onto his plate, and only gave Tony a mildly disapproving look at the whiskey he poured in his coffee. 

“Come on, we’re on vacation,” Tony cajoled. 

“That’s not that point. I’m just worried about your health. I could feel your pulse last night, and that’s not normal for a twenty-eight year old.”

“Fucking gays,” muttered a man behind them in the buffet, and Steve whipped around with his hands on his hips. 

“You wanna say that to my face,” he said hotly, and the man gave an ugly grin. He had shoes that probably cost a year's salary of the people around him, and walked like he knew it. Tony was intimately aware of his kind of people. 

“Yeah. You’re just a couple of fags and I hope to god you don’t infect us with whatever you have.” 

Steve started forward, but Tony pushed him away. “Tony—,”

“He’s not worth it,” Tony interrupted. Steve stalked away, but not before tossing another dirty glare at the man. They ate breakfast in tense silence, Steve’s good mood from before gone. 

As they checked out, Steve kept sending little glances Tony’s way, until finally he burst out as they entered the parking lot. 

“Why didn’t you let me give him a piece of my mind?” Steve demanded. “He deserved it.”

“You really think fighting an unarmed civilian is a good idea? Besides,” Tony continued, unperturbed, “while you were packing our things I found his license plate and tracked his car.” Tony pointed at a sleek vintage Jaguar that probably handled like a dream in the middle of the lot. “You know how to hotwire a car, right?”

Steve stared at Tony and slowly a grin overtook his face, a little glean of admiration appearing in his eyes. Tony grinned right back, and they hurried over to the car and got to work. 

Soon enough they were roaring along the freeway, top down and music all the way up. Tony took sweet pleasure in imaging the look of bewilderment and anger on the man's face when he realized his prized car was missing. Ah well, it’s not like the man couldn’t afford to buy another one. 

Tony’s cheeks hurt from grinning so hard, and he laughed in sheer pleasure of the moment. Speeding down the freeway, in the stolen car of an asshole, inching towards a hundred thirty, with Captain America in the passenger seat. Steve unbuckled his seat belt and stood up, spreading his arms out and whooping into the wind delightedly. 

It was at that moment of looking at Steve, arms spread out, golden face tilted towards the sun with his eyes closed and his hair whipping in the wind, that Tony realized he was in love with Steve. 

Oh shit. 

Repress? Repress. 

“Hey Tony,” Steve had clambered back down onto his seat and was grinning at him and Tony’s throat tightened. 

“Hmm?”

“We just stole a CAR.”

“We did. Don’t try and pretend this was your first rodeo, mister. You were the one who was doing most of the work.”

“Usually I borrow cars,” Steve explained, unbothered. “This is stealing. It felt pretty good.” 

“Rule number one, stealing from rich assholes is the best kind of stealing.”

“Well gee, how come you still have any of your stuff?”

Tony shot him a rude gesture, and Steve laughed. 

They sped off, easy conversation flowing between them, and Tony decided to pretend like his little revelation had never happened. No use making a so far very enjoyable trip awkward. That was it. It was for Steve’s sake really. 

They spent the next few days driving through whatever state they were in, visiting the world's biggest ball of twine or whatever it was that struck Steve’s fancy that day, and spending their nights in various hotels. Steve slept in Tony’s bed every night, and they never acknowledged it in the morning. 

It was one of these nights when Tony realized that Steve hadn’t come to his bed, hadn’t entered the motel room at all actually, and he got up to look for him. He found him in the tiny parking lot behind the motel digging through something in the trunk.

“Tony,” Steve grinned, spotting him. “Just the man I was looking for.”

“I’d hope so, I’d be worried if you were looking for another man at,” he checked his watch, “twelve thirty in the morning.”

“Funny. Come on, I wanna show you something.”

“Steve. It’s twelve thirty. I don’t know about you, but that’s usually when iron men like to get their sleep.” 

“Aww Tony, I didn’t know you were afraid of the dark. Never mind, your right, we can just go right back to the motel if you’re scared.” 

“Fuck off. Fine, I’m coming,” Tony grumbled. 

“I knew you’d see my way,” Steve replied, looking pleased. 

Steve drove them— something which Tony actively tried to discourage, as Steve learned how to shift gears in war torn Europe and drove like it. Nevertheless, they arrived at their destination safely, and Tony hopped out. 

“Steve. This is a hill. I know people in the forties didn’t have a lot to do, but staring at hills is not exactly my idea of a good time.”

“Could you stop being a smartass for one second?” Steve handed him a beer and patted the space next to him where he was sitting on the hood of the car. Tony went reluctantly. 

“Look up.”

Tony did, and his jaw dropped a little. Above him were millions of stars, so tightly packed together he could barely see the black between them. 

“Nice, huh,” Steve said, looking at his face with a soft smile. “You don’t really see stars like this in New York. I remember my first time seeing a sky like this, I went out to take a piss in France and hand to god, I stared for about half an hour just taking it all in.”

He took a sip of his beer, and Tony did the same. “I spent most of my life in the West Coast before this,” Tony offered. “They’ve got a handle on tech and weed, but… not so much this.”

They spent a little more time looking at the sky, just taking in the infinite array of space, but beautiful as it was Tony couldn’t stop stealing little glances at Steve. He thought he was being subtle, but the fourth time he did it Steve calmly shifted his body to face him and looked at him.

Tony never thought of Steve’s state as piercing before, but it was, it was like Steve could see right to the back of his soul. He opened his mouth, not sure what he was going to say but knowing he had to say it, perhaps he could finally tell Steve—

Tony’s phone rang. Cursing, he shuffled to open it, pressing it against his ear and irritably answering, “Stark.”

“Tony,” came Pepper’s harried voice, “we need you at the labs, the prototype you’ve been making with R&D isn’t fabricating properly and no one can figure out why. We’re already behind and the board is going to have my head if we don’t have this finished in time.”

Fuck. He thought he had fixed this problem, but if the prototypes weren’t fabricating that meant hours of work, and— 

He glanced at Steve, and grimaced. “Okay, okay, don’t panic, I’m coming. Give me half an hour, I’ll be there.” He clicked off the phone, and made a helpless sort of gesture at Steve. “Listen, I’m sorry, I know I said I had at least another week off but—”

“Hey, don’t worry about it,” Steve said, with a tight smile. “Your company is important, I get that.”

You’re important, Tony thought but didn’t say. Coward. 

He got up and pressed the sensor on his bracelet that called the armor to him, and stared in a sort of helpless silence at Steve. Was it just him, or was Steve flushing a little pink? 

He reached a hand out to Steve, not sure what he was going to do, when his armor appeared and quickly enclosed him in its metal embrace. He flipped the faceplate up. 

“Uh, thanks for the, uh, beer.”

“You’re welcome.”

“Do you, do you want a ride home?”

“Nah,” Steve quirked his lips. “I’ve got a pretty swell ride here,” and he rapped his knuckles against the hood of the car. 

Tony shuddered in sympathy for all the people unfortunate enough to be on the freeway with Steve. He stepped an inch closer to Steve, and Steve leaned in a little, and god he looked so kissable right now but— 

Shit. Fabrication units. His head on a platter if he didn’t fix it. “I’ll see you around then?” he asked breathlessly. 

“Yeah Tony. I'll see you around,” Steve answered softly, and the quirk became a smile, sweet and beautiful. 

Tony blasted off, and tried to remind himself that he had a job to do. Something that became very obvious when he looked at all the notifications scrolling on his HUD. “Fuck,” he groaned. 

It took him about two weeks to sort through the mess that was his company. It only took about four days for R&D along with Tony to fix the issue, but by then the prototype was already late to come out and the stocks dropped and Tony had to convince the board not to have a hemorrhage and it was just a mess. 

Which meant it was two weeks later that Tony showed up at Steve’s door, palms sweating, and a whole speech worked out in his head for how he would do this. Tony Stark was a lot of things, most of them not good, but a coward wasn’t one of them.

He knocked on the door, Steve opening it with a smile, and Tony’s insides lurched. 

“Hey, Tony. I’m guessing your Stark Industries emergency is all taken care of, then?”

“Yeah, yeah I got everything figured out. Figured I owed you a beer,” Tony said, holding up the six pack he had gotten on the way and trying not to look like his guts were escaping out of his stomach. 

“Great, great,” Steve said absently, and opened the door wider to let him in. Tony entered, and looked around as Steve bustled around cleaning up a bit. Steve’s apartment was bare in the extreme, Steve’s half hearted attempts at tidying up only making it more obvious how little there actually was in it. In fact the only thing of note was— yep, the horrendous elephant shaped sofa placed innocuously in front of the tv. 

The first time Tony had been to Steve’s apartment, he had taken one look around, declared it a “sad dump”, and had dragged him to the nearest IKEA, with Clint somehow appearing from nowhere to tag along. 

Of course Steve and Clint put together for anything automatically turned into what Tony’s HR department would call a non productive work environment.

“Hey Tony, look what I found!” Steve had grinned up at him and gestured at his prize— what appeared to be around a dozen succulents all of various shapes and sizes. 

“That’s… great start, but here’s an idea, something you can sit on.”

“Now why would I need to do that,” Steve asked, and Tony glared at him until, grumbling, he grabbed Clint and went to peruse the line of sofas. 

Tony let his mind wander as he looked through the lamps, and almost instantly regretted it when Clint came up to him with a gleeful expression on his face. 

“Tony, we've found the perfect sofa for Steve. It’s comfortable, and unique, and just the right size for a man of his—”

“Clint. What’s wrong with it.”

“It… might be shaped like an elephant,” and he grinned at Tony’s blank stare. 

“Actually?”

“Yep.”

“Show me,” and Clint led Tony to where Steve was grinning proudly by an absolutely horrendous couch with a head and tail sticking out on either end and the back meant for laying on like a lounge chair. 

“It’s perfect,” Tony said, and Steve and Clint nodded their agreement. In the end Steve left IKEA with the sofa, no less than twelve succulents, a meager lamp to cajole Tony, and about five churros. 

Steve had finally finished bustling around his apartment, and offered Tony a seat. 

“I was just watching the Dodgers game before you came.”

“How they doing?”

“Surprisingly well.”

“Well, never underestimate the power of the Dodgers to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory,” and he laughed when Steve threw a pillow at him. 

Okay, time to just go for it. “Listen, Steve, we’re friends, right?” 

“Well, yeah.” 

“And friends, don’t keep secrets from each other. It’s like, the whole point of friends, I’ve been told.”

“Listen Tony, if this is about the time that me and Clint switched out your coffee for Sunny D, we really did think you would notice before you drank the whole mug, and—”

“Wait, what? You switched my coffee with SUNNY D?”

“Oh. I’m guessing that isn’t what this is about then.”

“No! Although, how did you even get it the right color?”

“Food coloring,” Steve said, like it should have been obvious and maybe it was.

“Okay, well, zooming right past that because I don’t even have the brain power to deal with that right now, I… wanted to ask you a question”

“Sure,” Steve said, and placed his hands on his chin in that cute way he did, putting all his focus on Tony.

“I wanted to ask you… I wanted to…” He couldn’t do it. Steve was going to laugh at him, or worse, punch him in the face because who knew what people did in the forties when their best friend confessed to maybe sometimes having dirty thoughts about them. “Never mind, it was stupid.”

“Wait, no, come on you can tell me. It can’t be worse than when you were dying. Um, you’re not dying, are you?”

“No Steve, I’m not dying.”

“Well then,” Steve nodded, as if that settled it. “Come on, this sounds important to you and if you can’t tell me then we’re clearly not as good friends as I thought.”

Shit, Steve was bringing out the guilt trip. It would’ve been more amusing if it wasn’t so effective. 

“So,” Steve prompted. “You were going to ask me…?”

“Out,” Tony blurted, and his arc reactor was running a hundred times faster than normal. 

“Out? Out of where?”

“Jesus Christ. Never mind, please, forget this conversation ever happened, oh my GOD,” and Tony got up.

“OH. Ask me OUT,” Steve said, and Tony turned around. 

“Yeah.”

Steve looked at him. “Tony,” he said. “You can’t possibly be serious,” and Tony flinched back a little, hurt. 

“Look,” Tony said, “I realize that I am not exactly prime date material, but—”

“Not exactly— Tony, if anything it’s me you shouldn’t want to date! I’m a guy living alone in a shoebox apartment with no family, about two friends, and a shitload of PTSD and depression!”

“Yeah, well I’m a bordering alcoholic, obsessive manic with anxiety and insomnia. Are we done listing things wrong with us or can we move on?”

“That’s not—,” and Steve ran his hand through his hair frustratedly. He reached a hand out as if to grab Tony’s then seemed to think better of it. Now Tony was just pissed, there was no way Steve was turning him down by trying to convince Tony that he didn’t know what he wanted. 

“Look, Steve, if you’re going to reject me, then reject me, but don’t give me this bull crap about not good enough for you.” They were standing in front of each other now, and Steve’s conflicted eyes were staring into his. “You’re the best man I know, and you make me a better man too. The happiest I ever am is when I’m around you”

“Tony,” Steve said quietly, “You can’t possibly be interested in me,” and, was that hope in his eyes?

“Steve. Believe me when I say, interested does not even cover half of what I feel for you,” and Steve’s mouth was suddenly crashing into his, forceful enough to make him stumble back a little into the wall. And okay, so this was a thing they were doing, and— 

Tony’s mind blanked out as Steve bit his lower lip, hard.

“So,” Tony panted, “I, I’m guessing that’s a yes then?”

“What do you think,” Steve muttered against him, as he nibbled and sucked his way up the line of his jaw. 

“I dunno, I’m kinda slow on the uptake,” Tony breathed. “You better keep going.” 

Tony felt Steve rumble against him as he laughed, and closed his eyes at the sweet pleasure of the moment.

**Author's Note:**

> Like or comment below if you liked it!


End file.
